Why Is It So Dark In Here?
by ShiningSugar14
Summary: AU, as usual. Namine is adopted into "The Gay Clique" where back massages are given to complete strangers and injustice is something to fight. KairixNamine. Kairine.
1. Hey, Look! A Towel!

Upon finding no Kairine that I liked (and seeing that there were only four pages of it) I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Dedicated to my darling BriKyo, who plants rainbows in my mind.

* * *

Why Is It So Dark In Here?

Chapter 1: Hey, Look! A Towel!

Larxene and I aren't friends. We just aren't. I'm more like her gopher, her puppy dog, her whatever she wants me to be right that second. So that's why, when Larxene wants to go gawk (there's no nicer way to put it) at the school's latest student, I am forced along. It's just how I'm forced.

As we descend the stairs, Larxene sneers at something. "Did you hear those queers want a club?"

"What?" More confused, less incredulous.

"Yeah. Riku and Sora and those queero bastards. Sick, right?"

I actually don't care. I really don't. It's none of my business what gay people do on their own time. It really isn't. But Larxene is just so hateful that I'm terrified of what she'll do if the faculty lets this club go through.

Larxene's friends (Not my friends. I don't have friends, really.) wave her over to their side of the cafeteria, but she's looking for a new body in a lunch room of 600 or so familiar faces. Instead of a new body, I see neon colors and hair glue. That's the table she drags me toward.

The table isn't really a clique. It's half a clique. And their not really a clique, because anyone who's gay is probably here. So, it's more of a posse or something. I recognize everyone there. Riku was in my homeroom during junior high, Tidus was my Chem partner last year, Sora is in my art class this year.

"Hey," Larxene addresses someone across the table, completely ignoring Sora and everyone else. "You must be the new girl."

"Yeah," says a girl with hair like Cherry Cola and eyes like a waterfall. "I'm Kairi." She extends her hand and she and Larxene shake in the middle.

"I'm Larxene. This is Namine."

"Nice to meet you. Hi, Namine." I smile. My name sounds good in her voice.

Larxene plops down, which indicates for me to do the same. The way we've stationed ourselves, Larxene next to a very irritated Riku and Kairi's messenger bag is touching my leg. While Larxene makes nice with Kairi about how different Hollow Bastion must be, Riku glares smoking holes in the table and Sora beams at how everyone's getting along, I'm dying to get out my sketch book.

Truth: Sketching is the one thing I'm good at. I'm not athletic, I can't sing and I'm not a genius, but I'm very good at capturing form on paper. I've drawn everyone at this table at least once. Except Kairi. Now I want to sketch her, but it would look so awkward if I just yank out my book and pencils and say, "Could you tilt your head a bit?"

Kairi tilts her head in the _exact_ direction I wanted and I feel my hand snaking down to my backpack, but she's only leaning over me to hear what Larxene whispers into her ear. Kairi's face slackens, and then looks very amused.

"Yeah, I already knew."

"Really? But he's so very… _discreet_ about it." Kairi gets a look similar to what Riku got when Larxene initially sat down. I pale. Tell me that Larxene didn't just make an enemy out of her! Tell me that Larxene didn't just do that! "You know, I think I need to go. I'll leave Namine here though. Poor thing has no friends her own age."

With a heavy clamp on my shoulder, Larxene leaves me with a table of people who must hate me. I feel an anxiety attack coming on but my butt is glued to the table. Rather than lynch me, the whole table seems to relax.

"God, she's mean." Kairi sits back and sips on a vanilla bean Coolatta. She looks at me. "You two aren't really friends, are you?" She says it like a question, but it's not an interrogative question so much as a shocked comment.

My first instinct is to protect Larxene and lie. I don't like Larxene, but she _is_ the closest thing I have to a friend. My second instinct reminds me that Larxene basically is a playground bully. Tell the truth.

"Not really."

"I didn't think so," Kairi says, laying a hand on my back. "You're too nice for her." A bit more experimentally, Kairi's fingers probe my back. "You're really tense. Want a massage?"

Sora encourages me. "Kairi could massage a zombie and he'd be a person again. Let her."

Well, God, what else can I do? I lay my head on the table and Kairi gets up behind me, kneading the tense muscles in my back. She talks to Sora while making me (figuratively) drool in pleasure.

"You're still putting that club together, right? The GSA?"

What's a GSA? Sora seems to know. "No, not a GSA. Take out the 'S.'"

Kairi whistles. "That's pretty bold, but it could happen. Our old school had a regular old GSA, but if you want to reach for the stars."

"Really?" Riku leans forward.

They go off, talking about faculty and didn't this person get mad and, eventually, Kairi taps my shoulder. "Namine?" My name still sounds good there. "You're going to be late for class."

Oh God! I heave my bag onto my shoulders and dash off. "See you in Art!" Art? Oh yeah, Sora takes Art class with me. Funny how that works.


	2. There's Linens, Too!

Second Chapter! Ow, ow!

* * *

Why Is It So Dark In Here?

There's Linens, Too!

My first class is one of the few courses of my entire high school career that is useful sometimes and useless other times. Yes, math. Pre-Calculus, this year, to be more exact. Sometimes, we learn something I might actually need to know for something other than a test. Other times, I may as well catch up on my sleep.

Today, we're learning about inverse functions. Criss-crosses line the board, with numbers and letters and things I don't really need to know. Oh, yes, I'd say I could stand a quick nap. As could about half the class. As I drift off into fairy land, the door whooshes open and clunks shut.

"And where were _you_ when I began?"

"Sorry, sir. I'm new and very lost," A voice like honey explains. The aisle next to my seat is invaded and, sure enough, there's Kairi sitting down and taking out a notebook. She gives me a smile that I tentatively return.

When the teacher goes back to his lecture and I go back to dozing, a piece of paper emblazoned with one of Amy Brown's infamous fairies manifests itself on my desk. I look up just as Kairi puts the top on her pen. She motions for me to open it. Thank God for the back row. I open the note under my desk.

"_Sora's dropping the GA (No 'S', apparently.) application off at the office today during lunch. Then we're going to Cid's for pizza after school to celebrate. Wanna come?_"

Do I want to go? On one hand, I can stare at people milling around without looking completely crazy. On the other hand, I'll look crazy anyway if I'm watching people. I decide to base the decision on chance. If the next thing written on the board is a letter, then I'll go. If it's a number, I won't go. If it's part of a graph, then I'll wait for a letter or a number.

A few minutes of lecturing and he puts a 'y' up on the board. Looks like I'm going.

"_Okay. What's a GA/GSA?_"

Kairi opens the note and writes before passing it back.

"_I'll tell them you'll be there. And a GSA is a Gay-Straight Alliance, so Sora wants a GA, or a Gay Alliance. Like a club_."

A Gay Club? The idea echoes in my mind all period and all of period two. A Gay Club. Like a Bible Club, French Club, Drama Club. Gay Club. The idea makes me giggle and I decide that I like the idea.

* * *

Lunch is usually irritating for me because I have nowhere to sit and no one to sit with. So I usually just eat outside or find some excuse to eat outside the classroom door and wait for the teacher to unlock it.

Today, though, Tidus and Riku intercept me coming out of English and steer me towards the office. Sora is standing outside the office, annoying the secretary and holding a sheet of paper in his hands. About seven or eight people are with him.

When Riku and Tidus join the fairly large circle, Sora launches into a speech. "'Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears!'" Sora flourishes the paper dramatically.

"Gays, Queers, Homosexuals, lend him your ears," Riku grinningly deadpans.

"With this application, I, Sora Sendole, and your elected co-president, Riku Mainger, will plow forward in the name of equality and free rights and-"

"Son, if you're turning in that application, hand it over now," the secretary growls in a way that I didn't know secretaries could growl. Sora makes a squeaking noise and hands it over. To spare Sora a scrap of dignity, no one laughs until we round the corner.

Kairi giggles and leads me over to the vending machines. "He's funny, isn't he?"

"Yeah." The word tumbles out of my mouth as Kairi feeds the machine a dollar. Sticks the landing though, because I continue the conversation. "You seem to know the area and people really well…"

"I have family up here." Kairi selects an apple from the machine. "My grandparents. My mom wanted to move up here to be with them, so I came along for the ride."

I don't think I even have grandparents. I nod like I understand the whole thing though. Even though Larxene had asked her the same exact question this morning, I still ask it. "Do you like Hollow Bastion so far?"

"I love it." She bites into the apple and starts walking. I walk with her. "I mean, it's so much louder here. And there's more people and more to do. There are two high schools, aren't there?" I nod. "And Sora's just been a family-friend since forever. Lives right next door to my gran."

I nod. The exchange stalls. "Hey, I've got to get to the cafeteria. You should sit with Sora and Riku and I."

And I do. I sit with them and I eat my food and I laugh and talk and I'm really close to asking Kairi if we're friends.

* * *

After school, I would usually get on the bus, go home, draw, do homework, eat and sleep. But today, as I should have learned the instant I woke up, is Upside Down Day. Kairi comes towards me, and I'm excited to see her burgundy hair because that means that she's my friend and I haven't had an actual open-up-to-you type friend since middle school.

Kairi looks angry when I get closer though. Her countenance is something I want to draw, it's so mad and pretty. Her energy is palpable, pulsing off her before she's ten feet away from me. "There's a problem," she grits out between her teeth.

"I'm sorry," I reply automatically. Why? Because every time something goes wrong with Larxene, there's always a good way to pin it on me, that's why.

"Why are you sorry? You didn't do anything." She sighs, a long suffering sigh. "Come on." Kairi takes my wrist, her warm hand making the skin tingle, and leads me out to the parking lot. "The Gay Alliance got rejected," she sneers. "They said it was too controversial." Kairi growls.

Inside, I'm kind of growling too. That's not fair. I voice it. "That's not fair."

"No. It's not."

I'm led to Riku's infamous minivan. Sora looks angrier than I've ever seen him. Tidus is sulking against the side of the van. Riku's glaring at Larxene was calm gazing compared to the look he's giving the pavement.

Sora is the first one to actually look at me. Even though he's mad, his eyes look dead. "Hi Namine."

I nod. "I'm sorry about what happened."

"Hasn't happened yet. We can still get this overturned, I bet." Riku mutters. "Everyone get in."

Sora takes shotgun and Kairi sandwiches herself between me and Tidus. Riku revs up the engine and we take off.

* * *

"This is completely unfair. 'Too controversial.' 'Too closed off.' 'Open membership to other students.' So that they can lynch us, right?"

When Kairi had said, that we were going to Cid's pizza, I expected that we were going to that diner that we drive past every morning in the car, but I've never actually eaten at. Instead, Riku drove past Cid's, off to a residential part of town that I've never been in before. The van stopped in front of a sea-foam green house that Riku opened with a key; We're at his house.

"It's completely… Just… Ugh!" Sora isn't as eloquent at conveying the injustice of the situation, but he makes up for it in enthusiasm.

"We should do something," Kairi says. Tidus nods. "Make some kind of statement. Get people involved. Maybe get the decision overturned." Tidus snorts. "What?"

"You make it sound like tactics for a war or something. Very intense."

"Well, why not? I call a Gay Revolution." Sora and Riku smirk and Tidus leans back into the couch.

I like the term, "Gay revolution," much like I liked the term, "Gay club." I doodle on the sketchbook cover, Kairi in an army suit with a striped (meant to be rainbow) flag. Once I start drawing, the conversation melts into a murmur around me, then there's nothing. Wait, there's literally no one talking. I look up and the boys are staring at me. Kairi is staring at my notebook cover.

"Is that me?" I blushingly nod. Oh, God, why did I have to start drawing? "That's really good. Okay, guys, Namine is the official Visual Propaganda Executive in the Gay Revolution."

"What?"

"While you were creating that piece of artistic genius, we've been assigning roles for the revolution," Kairi explains. "Riku is the Head of Operations, he's going to tell us what we're doing. Sora is going to talk to people to get them involved, Tidus is going to do write ups for newsletters and newspapers, and you're drawing up posters, with our help, of course."

"Aside from helping Namine with the posters, we haven't decided what you're doing, Kairi." Riku isn't really accusing her so much as trying to help the process along.

"Well, isn't it obvious?" She points to my doodle of her that I really want to cover up because it's terrible. "I'm the poster girl."

This causes a small stir of activity. Riku bites down on a thumbnail and Sora looks concerned. "Kairi," Sora starts slowly. "You're not even out at school yet."

Out? Kairi's gay? I mean, she was sitting with Sora and Riku, but I just figured they were friends before. Kairi's a lesbian? "So?"

"You want to attract _that_ much attention your first week here?"

"Why not? The closet is getting damp and stuff. I want out." Closet? What?

"This isn't Destiny Islands, Kairi. No one really tries to get to know you, and there's so much homophobia here."

"Well, I want to come out and I may as well do it for a cause."

Sora looks like he wants to argue and Tidus has his mouth open for a retort, but Riku says, "Fine, Kairi. You're the poster girl of the revolution." Then he turns to me. "Namine, I hope you like drawing Kairi."

Truthfully, that's what I've wanted to do from the instant I saw her, so being told to do it isn't a bad thing. But I've never been around a lesbian before. What do I say? What do I do? And is it perfectly reasonable to tell her that I've never been more fascinated with another girl in all my life?

* * *

The ending gave me a humungous headache, but I like where this will be going. I like to think that the hard part is over, but...


	3. Wait a Minute

This has been really well received and I'm very glad for it. This is a small step outside my comfort zone in the sense that I rarely deal with a plot outside the romance itself, so I'm pleased at how this is coming along.

Dedicated to my lovely BriKyo.

* * *

Why is it So Dark In Here?

Wait A Minute…

The next day, news that a gay club was rejected has spread like wildfire by the morning. From the school bus all the way to my locker, people are talking about how the queers/homos/fags/gay-bays wanted to make a club. I drown it out, trying to come up with good ideas for the poster, but you can't drown out a vice-grip on your shoulder that yanks you to the library.

"Did you see what's going on at the queer table?" Larxene hisses when she's got me cornered in the reference section.

"No."

"It's that Kairi girl. The one who just moved here?" I nod. The name was on an endless repeat yesterday. "Well, she came in wearing this _shirt_." Larxene says "shirt" like she'd say "roadkill." "Something like 'Lez B Friends' on it. Gawd, she's a dyke. I should have known from the moment I looked at her."

Yes, because gay people have glowing neon signs along their noses. Of course. End my uncharacteristic sarcasm. Outwardly, I give an ambiguous shrug because I am a coward and don't feel like telling Larxene that I'm helping the cause she hates. I know that she'll find out eventually and I want to be in another time zone when she does.

On our way to the cafeteria, Larxene is fuming over Kairi being gay. Why is she taking this so personally? It's none of her business. It's not like Kairi hit on her or anything. Or did she? Like, subtly? Oh, God, what if Larxene is Kairi's type?!

I gauge Kairi's reaction to Larxene not saying hello to her. There is no reaction to gauge. Huzzah! Rather than follow Larxene, which I never do (I'm just her escort, maybe breakfast-retriever), I head over to Sora's table.

Kairi is, surely enough, wearing a blue shirt with two girls holding hands. I actually like the shirt. I really do. She's also wearing rainbow star earrings. Not entirely decked out in rainbows, like Sora sometimes is, but I get the feeling she likes how they look.

"Hi, Namine."

I sit down. When will I stop being shy and say "Hi" back, God? When? Sora urges me to take out my sketch pad, which I do, and he and Riku show me ideas they've written down for posters. I get some ideas, which I hesitantly voice, and I start working on preliminary doodles on the cover of my sketch book.

After a few minutes of that, Tidus talks with Sora and Riku about write-ups and Kairi turns to me. "So, when should I model for you?"

"Huh?" I'm still engrossed in a particularly detailed doodle that might become an actual poster.

"I said, when should I model for you? It needs to be done, right?"

"Yyyyeah…" Because it does need to be done and I do want her to pose for me, but… There's a million "buts." The top 20 under the "She Can't Come Over," sublist include, "My room's a mess," "What if Mom sees the T-shirt?" and "What if Dad sees the T-shirt?" Under the "I Can't Go Over There," list are, "What if Larxene gets the wrong idea about me?" "I have homework" and "Does she have two moms?"

"Cool. Maybe we could work at Riku's house then? We're going to be working over there again today. While Tidus writes, you draw?"

Riku's house was good. It was safe. It was a good and safe idea worth nodding to. Kairi accepts the nod and listens more to Tidus' conversation with Riku and Sora. She sips at her vanilla Coolatta (I think that's a staple of her morning routine) and leaves a faint layer of pink gloss. When she gets up to throw the empty cup away, I can actually think clearly about what's going on.

Okay, so I'm probably in love. Scratch that; I'm definitely in love. If I can't get Kairi out of my head for more than five minutes and her presence renders me unable to think at all, then I'd say I've got a crush, at minimum. The fact that I don't like boys doesn't disturb me as much as what Kairi would say. Somehow, a crush on a girl is scarier than what I imagine is a crush on a boy.

She comes back and my head falls back into that pleasant foggy feeling. Tidus was saying something about Drama club and Kairi was listening to him when another presence sits down at our table. A considerably taller presence that snaps me out of my reverie to stare at the face of my English teacher.

A word on Luxord Liddell: While he is the most informal teacher in the entire school, he is also the strictest. Read whatever you want in his class, but be prepared to analyze it thoroughly. He refuses to be called, "Mr. Liddell," preferring his first name or "Mr. L." He wasn't openly gay, but when his lover came by to drop off his lunch and pecked him on the cheek, it was very difficult to deny that he was gay. As such, I assume that he had been the perfect candidate for the faculty representative of the club Sora was putting together.

"Sora, would you mind telling me what you put on that application to make the principal question my impeccable references?"

"What? Why would he do that?" Tidus looks incredulous.

"I haven't the faintest." Luxord drinks down a gulp of his coffee and sits in the empty chair between Riku and Kairi. "He just called me in yesterday, wailing about me being a pedophile and just what the hell kind of class am I running, et cetera."

Sora moans and grabs his head. "You're kidding. Luxord, listen, I didn't write anything bad in that about you or anyone. I just wrote that you were the faculty representative, I swear."

"I know, Sora. I figured you wouldn't deliberately try to destroy my career. You do too well in my class. Still, this isn't going well. You kids deserve to have your group."

"We're starting a Gay Revolution. Calling attention to the issue and protesting and all that stuff." Kairi says it like it's something that all gay high school students do on their weekends.

"Oh… Marvelous. Well, if you kids need any help. I just wanted to clear up that incident." With that, Luxord scuttled away, leaving the us completely stunned.

"They went after Luxord…" Sora finally said. "He didn't do anything and they went after Luxord. That's, like, not even in the same neighborhood as fair."

Kairi nodded her head. "All the more reason to get this train rolling." As if her statement was some sort of finality, the bell rung and everyone scurried away to their classes.

* * *

Lunch time has become more of a club meeting place than anywhere else, which makes me wonder why we need a club in the first place. Obviously, not every gay student in the school has our lunch period. Riku said that there's at least five other gay students, making a total of nine. Ten, if you count me. Which I don't. I have a crush on Kairi, but I'm pretty sure I just have a crush on her as a person, not as a girl.

Details multiply immensely when we actually sit down and start talking. How will we do multiple copies of the posters? Would putting an article in the local newspaper be too much or too little? Should we talk to local politicians? Eventually, after getting a rather large amount of this on paper, Tidus says, "We should meet up during the weekend to talk about this."

Riku looks around at us. Only Sora is missing from our usual group of people. "Is everyone okay with meeting up this weekend? My place?" We all consent quietly and Tidus and Riku embrace the idea of talking to politicians.

Kairi nudges me in the side. "After the meeting at Riku's this weekend, do you wanna sleep over at my house? I'm not hitting on you, I'm just asking."

Reality hits me lightly in the face. Of course Kairi wouldn't be hitting on me. Kairi's interest in me is only friendly interest. Duh. She's vibrant and funny and I'm a wallflower. How could I ever even try to imagine…?

"Yeah, okay."


	4. Oh, wow! I'm in a Closet!

Heee... I'm so glad I was able to restrain myself from writing "The Good Stuff" until AFTER four chapters. This is an enormous amount of restraint on my part. Also, Namine's dad has no name or role aside from Namine's dad, but I always picture him as an older Luxord.

Constantly dedicated to BriKyo. I miss you so much.

Disclaimer: I don't own "Everywhere" by Michelle Branch, but I do love the song and music video.

* * *

Why Is It So Dark In Here?

Oh, Wow! I'm in a Closet!

Despite the fact that Kairi would never ever hit on me or consider me as her girlfriend, I fret over my dress, hair and fingernails for a solid hour. I've stopped denying the fact that I'm in love. I'm just going to go with it at this point. There's very little else that I can do except examine my favorite white dress for the slightest stain and bemoan how limp my hair is.

Riku's van pulls up in front of my house around five o'clock or so. He honks the horn twice and I pick up my bag. "Daddy, I'm leaving for a sleep over at my friend's house. Be back later, bye!" Dad looks at me funny as I speed down the stairs.

"Namine, hold it." I put on my shoes, strappy sandals with no heel, but give dad my full attention. "Where are you going?"

"Riku's, then Kairi's for the night."

My dad knows Riku- Riku's dad is his boss- but didn't know we were friends. "And who is Kairi?"

I was really hoping to avoid this conversation for a few days or so. "A friend of mine. She's just moved here and we became friends." I play the "She Just Moved In" card in hopes of Dad letting go of the fact that he's never met Kairi.

He gives me this stern look and, for a few seconds, I'm completely convinced that he knows that Kairi's gay and that I'm gay and that I'm helping a gay club. My guts clench in absolute fear.

Instead of accusing me of being gay, he says, "What time will you be home?"

"Er… I don't know…"

"I'll come pick you up at three tomorrow. Call me from Kairi's when you get there, and when you get back. Also, I want to talk to Kairi's parents."

That last one makes me cringe. What if they tell him about Kairi and he forbids me from seeing her? Instead of freaking out, like I want to, I give him a hug and speed out the door and hop into Riku's van. He's the only one there, which seems like a waste of gas until he tells me that we're picking up Kairi, Tidus, and Sora too. I just happen to be first on the list.

We're completely silent, except for the initial hello. Riku watches the road- He's a really safe driver, actually- and I watch Riku. When the silence becomes too much, I reach over (I took shotgun) and turn it down. "Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot." Riku brakes at a stoplight.

"Do your parents know you're…?" It strikes me that I don't know what Riku is.

"Bi. And my mom knows, but my dad doesn't." Riku chuckles and accelerates away from the stop light. "He'd beat the hell out of me. Why?"

"No reason." I stare out the window.

"Okay. Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure…"

"Are you gay? Because I've been getting some truly mixed-up signals from you." I openly stare at Riku. I thought gaydar was just a myth. "On one hand, it looks like you're into Kairi or maybe your in a dom-sub thing with Larxene." He shrugs and stops in front of a house. "On the other hand, maybe you just like as a friend Kairi and Larxene is just a bitch."

I would have responded, but Tidus knocks on the window and motions for me to unlock the back door for him.

* * *

I love Sora's shotgun rule. The shotgun rule was made when Riku got the van and the rule is this: As long as Riku has a vehicle with more than two seats, Sora gets to ride shotgun in exchange for discounting Riku's Dunkin Donuts coffees. The reason I love the rule is because Kairi's bare knee was touching mine the ENTIRE ride to Riku's house.

Riku kept giving me small, knowing, glances in the rearview mirror, but those are easy to ignore when contemplating the silken quality of Kairi's knee. Mine are only like that directly after I shave my legs, and I wonder if she just shaved for this occasion. Wishful thinking.

The instant we get into his living room, Riku puts me to work on drawing Kairi in a concept we discussed at lunch yesterday. It's Kairi standing on a miniature replica of the school, holding her hands above her head and a rainbow coming out of her palms. I just have to draw Kairi in the pose and I can add the rest.

"Namine, I love that I'm the model, but I need to be able to share ideas in this too. Don't be mad?" With a face like that, unabashedly happy and willing, how could I be mad? We develop a system where Kairi taps her foot twice on the floor if she has an idea. Then, after I get all the details I need at that particular second, I'll say she can move and, she can say whatever.

Maybe five minutes after I start sketching the framework, Sora shares an idea. "What would you guys say to organizing a protest?"

"How big?"

"The whole school." Sora makes a grand sweeping gesture with his hand. "I'm thinking maybe a sit-in. Or picketing. Luxord could do it too."

"Luxord could get arrested," Riku points out. "It's kinda his job to do class with us."

Kairi taps her foot. I tell them to hold on and then say, "Go ahead."

"I like Sora's idea with the picketing. It's a lot more demonstrative than a sit-in. Like, I love the Day of Silence, and I always do it, but it's kind of silly to stay silent for our rights."

Tidus nods, like he likes the idea, then starts writing. Kairi schools her features back into the triumphant mask I had told her to adopt earlier.

Riku bites his lip thoughtfully. "Okay, sounds alright. I need to check out the law on picketing on school property, but I don't see much against it."

"Good," Sora pops the top on a can of soda that Riku gave him earlier. "I liked that idea better anyway."

"You liked it because it was louder."

"What's your point?"

Tidus brings up some bad news. "The school paper refused to run the article I wrote. They gave me the same answer they gave for the club itself: Too controversial."

The writing, while important, is not my department, so I focus on other things. Like the way her eyes follow who's speaking, as if she's watching a tennis match. And the way that Kairi's sweatshirt clings to her chest, but leaves a lot to the imagination around her waist. And how very, very short her skirt looks when she's wearing a sweatshirt that baggy. And- AGH! NO! BAD NAMINE! STOP OGLING KAIRI'S THIGHS! FOCUS ON HER HANDS!

* * *

The meeting ends around 5-or-so o'clock. Sora and Tidus and Riku say that they're going to hang out at Riku's and watch Degrassi. After making absolutely sure that Kairi and I don't want to go along with that, we're dropped off in front of Kairi's home. She leads me, by my hand (Be still, my heart!), up through the halls. Seeing a note on the fridge, presumably from Kairi's parents, makes me remember.

"My dad wanted to talk to your parents when you got here."

"My parents aren't home right now. They're on their anniversary thing." She tugs me up over the stairs and into a room with lots of turquoise-blues and neon-pinks. Normally, this color scheme would be more, "Oh God, My Eyes Are Bleeding," but I like it in here. Probably because the cream-colored carpet on the floor sets it off.

There are rainbows everywhere, but what attracts my attention is photos of people pinned to an enormous corkboard over her bed. "You like photography?"

She giggles. "A little. You saw the video for 'Everywhere' by Michelle Branch, right?" I shake my head. "Well, there's this big ol' cluster of photos of this one guy that she loves, I guess, and I saw that video when I was younger and I said that I wanted to start doing that. So I got a corkboard for my birthday two years ago and just did it."

I recognize a few people in the pictures- Sora, Riku, Tidus, etc.- but there's also people I don't know and I'm instantly jealous of one. She has brown hair, green eyes, a school uniform and her lips on Kairi's cheek. I can't help it. I have to ask.

"Who's that?"

Kairi was just setting my bag on the floor. "Hm?" Then she sees what I'm looking at. "Oh, that's my ex. Selphie. That was a Halloween party last year." She changes the subject. "I heard the ones here are wild."

"I wouldn't know. I've never been."

There's a silence, during which I fiddle with the hem of my dress and Kairi unpacks her purse onto her desk. Kairi puts away things from her purse, but stops to examine a cherry lip gloss. "… Hey, Namine?"

"Yes?"

"What's romantic to you?"

The question throws me off balance, as if she had kicked my metaphorical ankles out from under me. "I… Don't know."

She chuckles. Not in a mean way, just finding something funny about it. "It's not like a party. You don't need to have been romanced to know what's romantic to you. It's just want you _want_ done, you know?"

I know what she's asking and, frankly, I'm astounded. Asking her to be straight with me (if you'll pardon the expression) would be ideal, but I'm impractical and instead, I play a surprisingly coy card. "Well, I don't know how to respond. Tell me what's romantic to you."

Kairi makes mischievous eye-contact with me. We're on another playing field now. This conversation is moving faster than even my dreams could have possibly depicted. "Surprises. Impulsiveness. Things I wouldn't expect. Your turn. What's your romance?"

"Intimacy. Being close."

Kairi takes a bold step towards me. "Close how? How close?"

"Ph-Physically." I'm only saying what she wants to hear at this point. "And emotionally. And as much as possible."

She puts her arms on my shoulders, pulling me closer to her body. I just noticed that we're exactly the same height. Kairi draws me into a loose hug. She smells like sweet fruits and vanilla. "Is this good?"

"Not quite." I lick my lips and press them gently against hers. It's fast and, for a second, I'm terrified that I've overstepped my boundaries. Only for a second. Kairi smirks and pulls me into a more intense kiss. It's a bit sloppy and I have nothing in the realm of technique, but none of that matters. Kairi wants _me!_


End file.
